USS Queenfish (SSN-651)

The contract to build Queenfish was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia, on 26 March 1963 and her keel was laid down there on 11 May 1964. She was launched on 25 February 1966, sponsored by Julia Butler Hansen, U.S. Representative from Washington's 3rd Congressional District (1960–1974), and commissioned on 6 December 1966 with Commander Jackson B. Richard in command.[1]

Queenfish was launched one day ahead of the lead ship of her class, the Sturgeon, despite being laid down 18 months later, and as a result of a multimillion-dollar bonus offered by the Navy to the Newport News shipyard.[1] She was also commissioned in December 1966, three months ahead of Sturgeon.

Queenfish spent the early months of 1967 practicing under-ice operations in the Davis Strait. She was assigned Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as her home port and arrived there in late spring 1967 via Guantanamo Bay, the Panama Canal, and the Pacific Northwest.[1]

In 1968, escorted by the Australian minehunter HMAS Curlew, USS Queenfish was the first nuclear-powered warship to visit Australia. Queenfish berthed at Station Pier, Melbourne, on 5 March 1968. The visit was a success, despite anti-nuclear protests.

In mid-1970, Queenfish operated below the polar ice pack in the Arctic, mapping the Arctic Ocean's seabed for potential military purposes in the event of a war between the Soviet Union and the United States.[2] She also surfaced at the North Pole and spent 20 days exploring the Siberian Shelf across the Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi seas.[1]

From 1970 to 1973 Queenfish completed two Pacific deployments, two Vietnam excursions, and six cold war missions. She then entered the Bremerton Navy Yard for overhaul. Queenfish revisited the North Pole in 1985 and 1988.[1]

Queenfish underway near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 1 June 1989.

Queenfish was deactivated on 21 September 1990, decommissioned on 8 November 1991 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 14 April 1992. Her scrapping via the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington, began on 1 May 1992 and was completed on 7 April 1993.

The escape trunk was removed and is currently utilized at the US Army Special Forces Underwater Operations School, Key West, Florida in their Submarine Escape and Buoyant Ascent Tower.

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.
• NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive Queenfish (SSN-651)